“Men,
in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within
them, or by a power without them; either by the Word of God, or by the
strong arm of man; either by the Bible, or by the bayonet”
-Robert
Winthrop

Like
millions of Americans, my wife and I love to attend the various fireworks
displays all around the area during the celebration of America’s
Independence from England. It has been our family custom over the last
two decades to invade downtown Columbus, Ohio for their massive Red,
White, and Boom celebration.

We
looked forward to this year’s event because of the opportunity
to share it with our beautiful nine-month old granddaughter who would
be joining in the family tradition for the first time.

As
usual, the fireworks display was terrific and watching little Reese’s
eyes widen as the sky lit-up with a plethora of colors was especially
enjoyable to this new grandpa. It was a perfect opportunity to reflect
on how the “torch gets passed” in handed-down family traditions.

I
am sure that my children would love to continue the tradition so steeped
in family memories as they do a tag-team hand-off to their children.
I pray that we share many more such events with young Daubenmire-offspring
yet unborn. Grandkids really do give one a different perspective on
life.

I
only vaguely remember my own father packing us up and driving the seemingly
insurmountable hour-long trek to “downtown” Columbus. When
I was a kid, an hour long drive required the same planning as a vacation.
We were small town folks…baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet…and
my parents were somewhat wary of the “big city” and it’s
evil influences. We were “country folk” and proud of it.

I
often joke with my daughter Abby that her daughter Reese had hit the
jackpot by being born into our family. Not that we are affluent, or
have a lineage of silver spoons in our mouths, but merely the reality
that our granddaughter had been born into a family where she would never
lack for love. It is the cloth from which she was cut.

She
was birthed into a family where family was valued, God has honored,
and His precepts were foundational. Little Reese’s lineage is
one where those who repeated “for better for worse, for richer
for poorer, in sickness and in health” meant it.

What
a leg-up she has on the literally thousands of fatherless children we
saw roaming the streets in downtown Columbus on July 1st. I am thankful
for the head start she has been given, but sorrowful for the culture
we have left her.

Sadly,
if the truth is to be told, my sweet little Reese is part of the new
minority in America; the married-for-life-till-death-do-us-part intact,
traditional family structure. One four-hour event in downtown Columbus
exposed to me the depth to which the American culture has degenerated.

From
what I observed America is toast. I don’t know if I have been
burying my head in the sand, or if I have just not taken the time to
really look at the fruit of a Godless, secular-culture. The rejection
of Biblical values has produced rotten fruit. I fear that Reese and
her generation will pay a horrible cost.

Her
grandpa’s generation did not keep the flame, hold the fort, nor
defend the faith. Part of the “enlightenment” that accompanied
the rejection of Biblical values was the false concept that licentiousness
was the apex of liberty. “If it feels good, do it” has spawned
a generation that does everything because it feels good. “Just
say no” lost out to “anything goes.”

The
idea of “self-restraint,” as spelled out in the Holy Scriptures,
has given way to “no restraint” and the life-without limits
that the secularists told us would bring us happiness.

But
here lies the conundrum. There are still parents in America who work
diligently to raise their children with Biblical values as the foundation
of life. They understand the concept of “inner control”
that Robert Winthrop alluded to in the opening quote…an understanding
that ALL citizens are better off if Biblical values are followed. Ultimately,
the only government that ever guarantees true liberty is “self-government.”
True freedom comes from being able to control what you do…not
from doing what you don’t feel like controlling.

Advertisement

God’s
laws are protective. If everyone would follow them fewer people would
get hurt.

But
society has turned a cold shoulder to the building blocks of our culture
replacing the pillars of decency with the neon lights of self-expression.
The genie is out of the bottle and no matter how hard we try to train
our children in doing the right thing, our grandchildren will share
a world with a generation of humanistic-educated citizens who believe
there is no such thing as the right thing.

“Who
are you to push your morality on me?”

Because
God-fearing Christians have remained silent in the face of a frontal
attack on truth, the Bible and the self-restraining precepts it taught
generations of our ancestors has been rejected as the cornerstone of
the American foundation.

Make
no mistake, American’s will be governed. But in our quest for
freedom, we have traded inward restraint for outward restraint. Out
with the Bible, and in with the bayonet.

The
bayonet is coming for sure.

Our
journey into downtown Columbus exposed us to an element that has been
quietly lurking in the shadows. All of the signs have been visible,
yet our rose-colored glasses and Polyannic attitudes have cast a false
brightness into the storm clouds.

The
thunder is rolling in the form of roving gangs of fatherless families
trolling the sidewalks of the inner cities. Saggy-trousered teenage
boys, tattooed from pillar to post, wander the sidewalks, followed by
scantily-clad teenage mothers with a toddler saddled to the hip.

What
chance do these precious little babies have compared to the life our
Reese has before her? They are prisoners to schools that don’t
educate, fathers that can’t father, and mothers who still need
to be mothered. From birth, most inner city children are sentenced to
a life of government dependency rather than God dependency. It has reached
the point where most American’s celebrate Independence Day by
displaying their independence from the restraints of the Law of God.

When
the government issued checks stop, as they certain will, only the bayonet
can secure the peace. But who will be wielding the bayonet?

Are
we foolish enough to believe that the “men in blue” will
be able to hold the line when the chaos comes? Remember the pictures
of Katrina? Do you recall how the police fled the scenes for their own
self-preservation?

A
Godless culture has produced a Godless people. We have sown to the wind
and we will reap the whirlwind.

I
was reminded of a Scripture as I held little Reese that night. It comes
from Isaiah
59:15“…and he that departeth from evil maketh himself
a prey.” Is it possible that we are setting our grandchildren
up? Could it be that by teaching them to govern themselves according
to the Bible we are making them prey to those who only understand the
bayonet?

Subscribe
to the NewsWithViews Daily News Alerts!

Enter
Your E-Mail Address:

Boiling
in the inner cities is a witch’s brew of out-of-control passions
fed by ignorance, poverty, drugs, and sex. Civil disobedience is coming
to America. The internal reins of Biblical values has given way to the
external chains by means of the bayonet.

Winthrop
said: “All societies of men must be governed in some way
or other. The less they may have of stringent State Government, the
more they must have of individual self-government. The less they rely
on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private
moral restraint.

Coach Dave Daubenmire, founder
and President of Pass The Salt Ministries www.ptsalt.com
and Minutemen United www.minutemenunited.org,
is host of the high octane Pass The Salt radio show heard in Columbus,
Ohio.

In 1999 Coach Daubenmire was sued by the ACLU
for praying with his teams while coaching high school in Ohio. He now
spends his energy fighting for Christian principles in the public domain.